Ben Shemen Interchange

This interchange is one of several that were designed by our office along the historical route between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. With the insertion of a new lateral north-south highway to Israel, Road#6, the original interchange had to be fully redesigned to accommodate the new road and all its off-ramps. The project is located at the point where the fields of the coastal plain meet the foothills of the Judean Hills. Our overall design concept for the Tel Aviv – Jerusalem highway treats each segment and interchange of the road as part of an ensemble of historical and cultural landscapes and sites, culminating in the arrival to Jerusalem. In the layout of the interchange, preference was given to underpasses instead of bridges in order to ensure visual continuity for the travelers on the major crossroads. In continuation of the existing landscape we created a mosaic of olive and carob tree groves, newly planted forests and agricultural fields in areas where local farmers could tend to them.